I have grappled with this question and truth be told I've come real close to emailing the race director all 3 times to have my name thrown back into the age group pool prior to race day. I never end up hitting that send button though and here is why. Like I mentioned before my times aren't going to net me a overall victory or even likely to put me on the overall podium....yet. However my times do almost always guarantee me a podium slot in my age group. So the question becomes am I there to race the best or is it about getting an award for my efforts. Does it mean the same to me if I come first in my age group but finish in 20th place overall? Now of course its not like I can just show up and win my age group, I need to bust my ass to get one of those 3 spots. But truth be told while it's great for the ego to win or place in your age group especially one as competitive as mine, the reason I race is to get better. So when I register as an elite I almost always finish dead last. And every time I go back and look at the results, and see I would have won my age group and have a tiny bit of regret that I didn't race age group. Then I start to think about why I register for these races.
I sign up many months in advance, not knowing who is going to be racing with the sole intention of coming as close to first place overall as my training will allow. I don't show up just to finish like I did when I first started out. Now when I race it's to be the fastest I possibly can be on race day regardless of who I am racing against. While some might think it is foolish to put myself out there to get slaughtered, I view it as an apprenticeship of sorts. You learn from these guys and girls how to be the best athlete on race day. From the moment the season starts, until the gun goes off on race day, I need to conduct myself as an elite. If I start to slack in training, it becomes a subtle reminder that I hold myself to a higher standard. Is it a huge shot to my ego to finish back of the pack? Sure. However every time I get knocked down a peg it makes me want it even more. I am never going to be an Olympic caliber athlete, but I can be a quality elite athlete if I continue to train and race with everything I have. My ego is big enough as it is, I certainly don't need a $2 dollar medal that says I won my age group but finished 15th overall to validate it. What I need is a good old fashion ass kicking and to measure myself against the best at every race. If that means I finish 10 out of 10 in the elites then so be it.
I am still fairly new to this sport and I think there is still a lot of room for improvement. I race and train with a chip on my shoulder, always have, always will. So getting my but handed to me at these races insures I don't take my foot off the gas when it comes to all things triathlon. Everything matters, from training, daily nutrition, rest and recovery, to race day execution. All the little things add up and if I train and race with that elite mindset I can only improve and get better. No one knows what is going to happen on race day, certainly not me. Maybe the guy that crushed it last year hasn't trained as hard or as well as me. Maybe I nip him at the line or put him away early on the bike. Those possibilities always loom anytime you toe the line. And for me I like it when I am backed into the corner and having nothing to lose. Put me on the start line and give me a shot. So come Saturday I get to measure myself against the best and see how I stack up.
"It's part of the triathlete's psyche, you really want to test the boundry. You want to get to the edge and look over it to find out where it is. Sometimes you don't know where it is until you have stepped over it." -Craig Alexander, 3x Hawaii Ironman Champion
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